About us

Were we consulted? On the fourth of July, 1946, we sentenced generations of Filipinos to live their entire lives in a country run like hell by their compatriots. How does pride in self-rule stack up to the reality that in the more than 50 years of independence, the majority of Filipinos lived in absolute poverty and countless others suffered, died, or disappeared as a result of the greed and lust for power of our leaders.

Our country is sick in every sense of the word and we are a morally, intellectually, and spiritually bankrupt people. Our virtues, once comforting when invoked, now, at best, point out disturbing ironies about us: packed Sunday masses and images of presidents, mayors and congressmen knelt in prayer, ‘third largest English-speaking country in the world’, ‘where Asia wears a smile’, ‘Asia’s most vibrant democracy’, etcetera, etcetera.

It’s time we face the truth about Filipinos.

Culture is the collective character of a people who have given themselves a collective identity.

What is it about the Filipino character that dooms us to chronic failure at worst or consistent mediocre performance at best? Hang around and find out.

“I would rather have a Philippines run like hell by Filipinos than a Philippines run like heaven by the Americans” — Manuel L. Quezon

======
To keep up to date with what’s going on in the world of Get Real Philippines, subscribe to or follow us at Facebook and Twitter!

Spread it!

73 thoughts on “About us”

Joshua T.

Hey, Benign0, If Mr. Quezon is still alive today, I’ll utter a quote that I hope he’ll never forget, and will also make him regret uttering the “run like hell by Filipinos” statement – “Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?” – from Dr. Jose Rizal’s El filibusterismo.

To be fair to Quezon, nobody had any idea at all at the time how big a capacity for mediocrity Filipinos possessed. Independence at the time was seen as the magic wand that would give Pinoys wings to fly just as the Edsa “People Power Revolution” was seen to be a cure-all for injustice and corruption back in 1986.

Joshua T.

BTW, I’m just an upcoming 4th year HS student from CamSur; I never knew that our cultural dysfunction is one of the reasons, if not THE reason, why our country fails to prosper within the last 65 years; I dunno if this cultural dysfunction here will last forever or not.

Corporations rely on deep cultural change to get them to the next level of competitiveness. They invest millions in implementing stuff like that. If we want a world-class Philippines Inc, then we need to run it with shrewd business sense.

This dysfunction, indeed, will “last forever” if nothing is done about it. So recognising that it exists is the first step.

burias1

oh yes he did of course he did…! he always longed to run the country like hell considering his Mestizo lineage….

johnny

(November 22, 2015 - 4:36 am)

burias is correct.

A Filipino studying at Harvard in history stumbled upon loads of historical documents regarding the Philippines and the USA.
So he did a lot of research on the subject and came to a discovery.
#1 The USA was fully prepared to give the Philippines independence. Just at a later time when they felt the Philippines was ready for it. According to transcripts of American lawmakers, advisors, American military, and Americans in the Philippines they concluded the Philippines was a typical Spanish colony where the elite controlled everything and the poorest people would never get ahead. Plus the corruption and attitude towards corruption was very apparent to them. They knew it would take a couple of decades to shake the “Spanish system” from the Philippines.
#2. The biggest advocates for Philippine independence were those elitist, mestizo types. According to the Americans in the Philippines, they stated the oligarchs/ mestizos want independence, not for the good of their country, but for their own good. They are trying to rile up the people to get us out so they can take over everything and have unchecked control/ power. One of the names they mentioned was Quezon. He intention for independence was not for nationalist reasons, but for self-interest and power.
The USA had no long term intention of keeping the Philippines as a territory or colony so they ruled to let it go sooner since the people “wanted their independence so badly”. The USA settled to give back the PHilippines, but maintained the military bases to keep the USA strategically placed for military purposes.
This was an article in Rappler about 2-3 years ago.

Anarcho-Capitalist 1

Hi just stumbled into your site here I can say it warms my hart to know that statist Tyrant Pnoy’s propaganda does not convince everybody. But if I may have one quip about the site is that you don’t go all the way.

Without Pnoy here we would simply have another Statist Tyrant in charge holding back the creativity and freedoms of People here in the Philipenas. Why don’t you also go after the Government it self? I mean do we really need it? seems to me it needs us more. Stealing from us Via Taxes and claiming the right to Jail us or Kill us if we don’t comply.

Even now they Kill and Jail thousands of Filipinos everyday for victim-less crimes People who chose to consume Marijuana To Gamble ect..

Making us go to war against these Imaginary Foes. They sent some 10k troops here in Ilio-Ilio to go after the NPA who has around 50 so callled “FIGHTERS” And don’t get me started on Mindanao….

In short I’d like to see Articles going after the source of the problem That gang of Crooks and Murders write large Aka The Republic of the Philippines. Not the just the Symptoms(Pnoy)

bulutongboy

If you are thinking “Crooks and Murderers” meaning corrupt and abusive goverment officials and that eliminating them would ensure a better future for our country. You are highly mistaken, my friend.

I worked abroad before and it is known that in any country, there are always corrupt and abusive officials. But still, a lot of those countries are better than the Philippines. So, corruption and abuse is not the actual problem. Rather, it is something in the Filipino society that makes our majority display stupidity, inaction and mediocrity (a cycle of it getting worse and worse).

Hyden Toro

If we accept, what a past leader, who is long dead…what he had told us as our “Truth”…then, it is our fault…We can work to amend, not to live in this Hellish conditions…
We live with this kind of condition…because we allowed it; by leting ourselves be deluded by our incompetent leaders…

benjamin f. cardinez

@benigno, did filipinos have a choice in 1946? it was obvious that the americans were not exactly enamored with the idea of holding on to the “islands” either as a state, a colony, or a protectorate. it was not up to us whether or not to accept “independence” and be responsible for our own destiny. like a child, we were given opportunity to grow up, but we blew it and still wasting it. the fact that we cannot run our country like “heaven” is beside the point.

That highlights an even more pathetic point then; that Quezon would carry on with all that ‘we don’t need no American guidance’ rhetoric when in reality we did not come across to the US as an asset worth keeping to begin with.

benjamin f. cardinez

but benigno, in 1946, who in the world would think that filipinos were not capable of governing themselves, or of LEARNING how to govern themselves? afterall, they were, even before then, talking big already – e.g., bonifacio, aguinaldo, and the rest of them. the only possible exception was rizal, who had real doubts about the capacity of his own people.

Ilda

(June 12, 2011 - 2:25 am)

Which is why I said in my blog:

“We donâ€™t have to be stuck with a form of government that doesnâ€™t work just because this is what our forefathers wanted us to have during their time. We need to look at what will work for us as a people and be open to the possibility of changing something even if it is too daunting a task. We need to constantly evolve otherwise our society will not grow.”

johnny

(November 22, 2015 - 4:53 am)

Actually, it was the intention of the USA to keep the Philippines for a decade or 2 longer. They knew the Spanish Colonial mentality was very engrained in Philippine culture and it would take a while to shake off. They were willing to guide the Philippines to become self-sufficient, but the elitists really started rallying the masses up. So the USA said, “fine, less cost, overhead, and headache for us”.

Look at any former Spanish colony. The mestizos, oligarchs, and corrupt control everything while the masses barely get by. The masses in former Spanish colonies are badly uneducated, while the elites sit in hacienda or compound types with the poorest as their maids, servants, and cheap laborers.

Even former Singapore PM said the same. He noticed the Philippines followed the same pattern as mexico, Colombia, etc. Not to mention the huge influence of the Catholic church and their opposition to any type of birth control they encourage overpopulation so much it leads to even more poverty.

@Bencard: Indeed, I concede that. There was no way at the time anybody would’ve known the extent of ineptitude at self-governance, self-guidance, and self-stewardship that Pinoys would go on to subsequently exhibit.

Then why don’t you propose your own version of what we might generalise about the Philippines then. Otherwise, you will most likely just go on stomping your feet over something without proposing any credible alternative. 😀

auriga

@A Fine Jologs:
If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither are on your side, pound the table. Don’t blame us if your hand hurts eventually, though.

Sphynx

Majority claim to be “Close to God” yet do these acts such as cheat/steal & tolerate among us those who do? (This is of course not limited to just those in power, but to the general masses) They use “His” name for their benefit without regard for what is being taught, in principle, by the faith (I do not like to use the word religion as it is already subject to respective church(es) interpretation, which is by man)

And with that arguement, we can already trace it back to how it has become sick/twisted in its morals and what becomes important, which affects the intellectual decision making of the majority.

It is a sad reality, that I hope will change, but sadly, as long as there are things that continually stay in the picture, I don’t it would be coming anytime soon.

I would like to say what those elements are, but I know I’d get a beating from the “loyal/faithful” because I think there is something wrong with it.

Ilda

Jackstone54

Please check out the Aug. 14, 2012 issue of the Philippine Star. Zero in on the column of Yoly Villanueva Ong in the Op-Ed pages. She takes issue with GetReal for criticizing the Filipino spirit’s :unsinkable buoyancy and lack of outrage.” She goes on to quote a large chunk of the site’s post, an example of lazy writing. Ms. Ong is a Palace sycophant whose brown-nosing helped her ad agency land the DOT account under Sec.Lim. She was behind the plagiarized Pilipinas logo and the inane slogan “Pilipinas Kay Ganda.” She has been praising PNoy to high heavens even though she was originally in Chiz Escurdero’s camp before she realized he wasn’t running. She has also claimed that PNoy slogan “Kung walang corrupt walang mahirap” when that was the handiwork of a staff member of Sen. Pangilinan. Her agency’s services during the 2010 presidential campaign were discontinued after her ads were found to be ineffective. To this day she, like Conrado de Quiros, is an indefatigable cheerleader for the current administration. However, it must be disclosed that her agency did some work with the GMA government, from which she has distanced herself.

Good day! I’m Maryjo from Innity, one of the leading online media networks in APAC since 1999. We are now inviting publishers as partners on our network and we already have on going campaigns in the Philippines.

It would be great if we can set a quick meeting with you to discuss potential partnership and our digital solutions for http://www.getrealphilippines.com. Let us know the best time for this and we’ll be glad to drop by your office to present.

t from munitnlupa

Obvious troll is obvious. Every country has a bad side. You can recite quotations until your face turns blue. I think if you actually had a life, you would turn off your monitor, walk away, and never return to this website again. Of course, it doesn’t seem like either will ever happen. If you like whining about your country, maybe you should just leave the place or kill yourself. Then you don’t have to be sad and people don’t have to listen to your useless crap.

Gunslinger

I once read an article that an american leader wrote during the occupation (forgot his name). It goes something like The Filipinos should not be given democracy/independence because we cant handle it. We are not ready, even after 100 years of democracy/independence we still wont get it. right on the button or a really good guess?

“Culture is the collective character of a people who have given themselves a collective identity.”

True. But cultures can, have and do change.

Self-defeatist attitudes will not change them. Pro-active ones can.

While I have never been a huge fan of MLQ (primarily because I come from a different social class, anak pawis po kasi ako, or hampas-lupa, HL for short), this statement touches a chord inside me:

“I would rather have a Philippines run like hell by Filipinos than a Philippines run like heaven by the Americans” — Manuel L. Quezon

Seriously, would you rather be a part of America? That country which committed a lot of atrocities, not only against people that are not their own, but also against their own kin. Or has the US Civil War been a walk in park? I’d take the EDSA Revolution any day against that blood bath.

Lica

I like the idea of your website in that it hopes to debunk and defeat the tropes of Filipino character.

That is, I liked it until I got to this part:

“What is it about the Filipino character that dooms us to chronic failure at worst or consistent mediocre performance at best?”

I have no problem with the first part of your question since it speaks of character flaws needing fixing. The second part, however, implies that not only does Filipino character need fixing, we need to completely change it because it doesn’t work at all.

For every character flaw that you point out, others can point out something positive in the Filipino as well. There’s nothing wrong with being the devil’s advocate and saying out loud what everybody seems to be denying. But, there’s an implication in your words that hint of condescension towards Filipinos in general. This makes you appear as if you’re a preacher on a pedestal who only sees things from above, but not from within.

The Philippines and Filipinos are not perfect, and we should not continue to make excuses for our deficiencies as a nation. However, these deficiencies do not equate to our abject failure either.

I’m sorry for my incredibly wrong, and quite rambly, response to your post. I thank you though for making me ponder Filipino-ness. I never thought I’d be the kind of person who’d be defending it online.

Carl

“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms

Erlinda Belgica Alabanza

The quotation from President Quezon, about the Philippines being “run like hell by Filipinos” had been running through my mind recently as I sadly mused over the realization that our country is evidently being “run like hell” lately as a result of the recent expose re the infamous Pork Barrel Scam. This led me to stumble upon ilda’s article. Let me remind you that Jose Rizal once wrote that the youth is the hope of the nation. Reading the comments here has shown me that indeed, the youth is the hope of our country.You have the ability,the insight and most importantly the concern to see the ills of our nation;study and analyze the problems plaguing our government; to move or motivate others to do do something about it. Today’s youth is not silent. The Filipino has not just talent. The Filipino has the spirit to rise above this present demoralizing crisis brought about by scoundrels and scalawags in government. We are a people capable of bearing extreme sacrifices and having no malice towards our neighbor. This accounts for the reason why we seem to be condoning corruption in our life. But it was only because in part we tend to consider the human factor and so the corruption went unchecked because we “understood.” But never did we dream the shameless, insensitive and heartless plunder by majority of our elected officials in high government positions. People who are not in want, are living in comfort and luxury and enjoying many privileges. Now some of my deductions may run contrary to yours but the bottom line is our generation with all our quirks may have erred in judgment, but all is not lost. Together we can forge a commitment to put to right the state of our nation.

Ian James

Apologies for the ‘more than ever’phrase. Seriously, we are now more deeply engrossed with pleasant distractions in which if we are to properly channel its function, it does become a potent mix for achieving greater awareness, for example this website. As I have said, vigilance is key. Too much information and misinformation has been looping around the primary channels of media and information processes.

1978

It’s time we face the truth about Filipinos… because the truth will set us free.

Just stumbled upon this website, it may very well be the bitch slapping the Filipino people need from time to time to educate us.

Readers, just take everything with a grain of salt, don’t be too sensitive. If anyone slightly or strongly disagrees with opinions here, try and have and open and critical mind. May kasabihan nga, “bato bato sa langit ang tamaan huwag magalit”.

Nothing can be further from the truth. To the staff, keep up the good work.

Benny Fernandez

hi to editor webmaster sir, may i be allowed to excerpt choiced news from your end to be publish in a portion of our Filipino Focus and HIRIT Boses ng Masa, which is circulated every weekend issue of about 3,000 copies, my column PEN Pointer will highly appreciate any one of your subject news clips and messages, which you will allow us to be published, we can have it on a regular weekend issues…thank you very much for your collaboration with me. If you will allow us…more power to you guys in web media! Godbless you more. pls text my hotshot line 09497621757, GODCHEERS!

Hi, webmaster, I really like your style and I think all of GRP’s. Ilda’s for example, she’s very astute in her observations and her ambulations from one subject to another re: our culture, Phil. culture, whatever that is. You know, ever since I was in college, we have this perennial unanswered question: WHAT IS A FILIPINO? …subject to debates, discussions, much ponderings, some profound thinking……… getting nowhere, no definite answer…. intrinsically, inherently, genuinely, and truly Filipino, not borrowings nor adaptations, adoptions, assimilation, or what have you. So, may I ask if you can think of one…..food, character trait, language, custom, norm, etc…….? Then next time, I’ll make a comment about us being what were and are now….. Salamat!!!!!!

andrew

the word Filipino was given by Spaniards in honor of King Philip of Spain. “las islas filipinas” or philippines was also given by Spaniards / Portugese

i’m half tagalog/visaya but i grew up and bred in Metro Manila / NCR around tagalog people. so i call myself tagalog or simply luzonian. by race/culture filipinos are malayan but since inter-marriage we became mixed blood. i’m light-skinned and i don’t look like native malayan / austronesian though but i consider myself tagalog.

we need to trace our roots/tribe/clan/ethnicity and be proud of it. if you’re ifugao then say it. if youre Tboli, say it.

Ven-Ven

I can’t remember how I found GRP. I am sure though I saw it somewhere in youtube called pinoymonkeypride and CoRRECT. Anyways, I really like this blog. It’s speaks the truth. I like all the writers but my faves are Ilda and Benign0. I don’t comment a lot but I read and share a lot of your articles. Please keep writing! Hopefully someday the majority of the common Filipino people will come to their senses.

DomRene

You’re so true GRP. It’s about time we Filipinos face the harsh facts about ourselves. We gripe about dirty politicians yet we keep voting for them because they are movie actors, members of known political families and because of the paltry amount we receive every election time. We pride ourselves to be the only Christian country in the Asia, yet we are in the 9th place in terms of corruption in government, not withstanding the largest amount stolen by government officials from public funds. We are the worst drivers in this part of the world. We do not obey traffic lights, signs and we park our cars wherever space is available.
Oh! and did I tell you we still piss in public, by a tree or by a wall? Is this in our culture?

Keep up the good work and keep on writing. You have a fan in me.

Josef

It’s 3am and as a college student plagued by insomnia, I stumbled upon one of your articles (“Why I Am Not Proud To Be Pinoy”) and decided to stick around a bit to see what this site’s all about (hence, me being here at the about page)…and let me just say that I’m actually amazed at how the particular brand of cynicism that your articles carry is just so fucking bitter that it actually seems like the perfect wake-up call that a society like ours needs. I mean, hell, the reason it’s bitter is because it’s the drug that we gotta chug down if we actually wanna start realizing what’s wrong and start fixing the problem, and I do hope that a lot more people, especially Filipinos, get to see it that way. Really, let me just say, Kudos to GRP! Definitely gonna be dropping by more often 🙂

LVM Malana

I don’t know where in here this comment will fit so I guess I’ll write it here.

How I wish these issues of incompetence and corruption will be dealt with by legal process and educated discussion and politicians stick to answering allegations instead of answering with showbiz propaganda. I believe we still have a lot of educated and intelligent people around here, don’t we? Our reputable schools I know still produced bright students. We have many professionals with high academic degrees; some of them are our public servants. We still have caring individuals (a lot of NGO volunteers). Unless all are crooks or desensitized with the ugliness they see around the country, of course enlightening discussions goes to the bin. But I’ve been to different forums and I see such is not the case.

But I’m really hoping to see a big case or a problem being solved or better, eradicated. Why can’t we do that? When there’s a crime, we have the victims first of all, and then the suspect or the accused and the accuser. To solve the crime, punish the criminal and give justice to the victims, we focus on the allegation, the evidence, the prosecution or defense. Unfortunately, that is not what’s happening. The crimes they cover it up with propaganda. What crimes do we have here? For example, incompetence and corruption. They don’t see the suspects as suspects. The suspect – politician. They don’t see themselves as victimized. The victims – the taxpayers/Filipino workers & consumers. If politicians corrupt the public funds, it is actually the people or the taxpayers vs the corrupt politician. The people are forgetting that every penny that the government is spending is coming from their taxes. Even the salary these politicians are earning came from the taxpayers’ pocket. The state-owned enterprises were built with the use of the people’s taxes. And people work hard for these taxes.

As a taxpayer, I really want these politicians to answer to us, on where they are spending all our money. I only have to look around me to see if they are spending the money well. They don’t. Are our politicians inherently incompetent or corrupt or is that only because of our political culture?

For me incompetence and corruption goes hand in hand. How to spot a corrupt politician or city planner? If he is incompetent. He is more likely to pocket the funds if he know not how to spend it for development because he is not using his PHD, MA or college degree-holding brain. He is also more likely to have a deal with crooks. How to spot an incompetent politician or city planner? If he is corrupt. He has more allegations to answer to than accomplishments to show. So now that we know that these are the kinds of politicians we have, the people should have a strong case against them. And that needs strong characters and educated Filipinos grilling these people to answer to allegations and come up with solutions to the problems and programs for developments, both the leaders and the followers. And basing on the slow development of our country, the leadership needs a lot of powerful brains to assist them.

I’ve concentrated on reading GRP these past few weeks and may I comment about the commenters. Now I’m not intelligent in that I have to read a lot and repeatedly at times to understand what I’m reading and come up with ideas of my own. I am also learning from inputs of others. I noticed though that although many weren’t able to absorb the message of the article, I believe many also does but somehow something is missing – personal ideas, discussion about the situation and giving of inputs on how to get out of bad ones or how to get better. Most of what I read about the comments is whose fault it is, why it is like that is because of so and so and because of the culture of corruption and incompetence again and again. Rarely do I read about recommendations and how things will work, what will best apply to said situation, why will it work and why not (And yes, I must admit I’m also like that sometimes but decided to push myself to do better). Now if I’m a crook politician and all I see are people who don’t know that I should be beautifying surroundings, building recreation plaza, rescue and health centers, good roads and state-of-the-art schools, and starting a better education or flood mitigating program and giving business loans or grants, and these people have no idea what these things should be like and how it’s to be done, I can make them wait forever or present to them “pwede na ‘yan” kind of work or makikisawsaw lang ako sa isyu, giving wonderful opinions that people will agree but no actions, let them think I did something anyway hindi naman nila alam kung anong gusto o kailangan nila.

For Filipinos who are stupid and lazy, they need to push themselves to think and to work. There’s no other way to get out of the mess we’re in but through that. Push. Try. Hindi pwedeng makuntento na lang o bahala na ang iba o ipagpasa-Diyos na lang. PUSH.

For undisciplined Filipinos, I don’t mind seeing them suffer until discipline becomes a way of life for them. I will also ask of it from a trusted leader. Punishment is better than grave consequence.

Filipinos will be more confident to face adversaries if they are equipped with related information and knowledge on how to surpass it. I’m a firm believer that change will start from a growing ideas and exploring of possibilities. I also hope we stop settling for less.

I think that’s all I have to say. Please feel free to correct wrong or weak points. Thank you for the space. More power and God bless!

roberto soriano

I think you better read this. Its an article from the old issue of Philippine Free Press….’

Some Filipino nationalists hailed Quezon when he remarked, “I would rather like to see a government run like hell by a Filipino to a government run like heaven by the Americans…” This now-immortal remark was uttered by Quezon at the height of the controversy between the members of Philippine Assembly and Governor-General Leonard Wood which started with the publication of the Forbes-Wood Mission findings on the mismanagement of the Philippine National Bank. The report accused among others, the managerial incompetence of Venancio Concepcion, a veteran Filipino-American War general and an ardent supporter of Quezon, that during his incum-bency, the bank lost much money on graft and corruption, on bad loans and on uncontrolled expenditures and unexplained disbursements. The result was the decline in the Philippine economy and the refusal of foreign banks to accept the Philippine peso.
The report concluded that the Filipino leaders were not ready to be granted independence, which was in contrast to the ardent desires of Quezon and Osmeña to seek more autonomy, participation on government affairs and eventual independence of the country. Although the report was not specific as to who was responsible, it alluded that Quezon and Osmeña were to be blamed on the fiasco because they both lobbied to former Governor Harrison for the appointment of Concepcion as president of the bank.
As an immediate result to the finding, US President Harding sent an American Auditor to investigate the massive graft and corruption in the different government agencies. Many Filipino officials were fired, unceremo-niously removed from the positions or replaced, many of whom were the relatives and friends of the Filipino politicians supportive of Quezon and Osmeña.
However, the appointment of the American Auditor prevented the further decline of Philippine economy and restored the confidence of foreign banks and investors on the country. The Philippine peso recovered against the US dollar, while the government funds became sufficient. These moves, however, was criticized by Quezon and other Filipino officials as unconstitutional, repressive and undemocratic. The cooperative atmosphere of Harri-son’s regime between American and Filipino officials was shattered, it was replaced by uneasiness and non-coope-ration among them. Government service became factional, the people suffered. The rift reached its peak when Pre-sident Harding appointed Leonard Wood as governor-general prompting Quezon to brand him a “tyrant” and “usurper of power/”

Quezon, as usual, with his Spanish pride, had the bravado of calling an American who was doing good as far as managing the affairs of the government, as a ‘tyrant’ just because he was hurting Quezon’s many Filipino political supporters who were incompetent, unqualified and corrupt. Wood’s examination and review of the expenditures of several government agencies exposed many unusual malversation of funds, cash advances and unexplained disbursements which were suspected of landing in the pockets of the Filipino politicos.
What I could not understand was Quezon’s equation of nationalism by endorsing unscrupulous supporters to juicy positions in the pretext of Filipino participation in running the affairs of the country. He told that Filipinos deserved more freedom in running their government, but when the same Filipino officials were appointed, it was like getting the key to unlock the unlimited funds which they siphoned for their personal interest.
The Filipinos politicians have not changed. As it was during the Spanish and American regimes, so it is at the present time. Our politicians would rather make ‘the government a hell and a pit of vipers with no com-punction of cheating their constituents’ than ‘establishing a vanguard of government excellence and progressive policies beneficial to the Filipino masses.’ Positions in government is treated as a license to amass wealth and perpetuation of power. I wonder why Quezon wanted a hellish government. Is it because he wanted it that way so he and his ilk can stay in power?
Everytime I hear politicians speak of “nationalism” when dealing with foreign powers, I know what they mean. Its just like saying “don’t interfere with us, were busy stealing money and we don’t want to stop.”

roberto soriano

Some Filipino nationalists hailed Quezon when he remarked, “I would rather like to see a government run like hell by a Filipino to a government run like heaven by the Americans…” This now-immortal remark was uttered by Quezon at the height of the controversy between the members of Philippine Assembly and Governor-General Leonard Wood which started with the publication of the Forbes-Wood Mission findings on the mismanagement of the Philippine National Bank. The report accused among others, the managerial incompetence of Venancio Concepcion, a veteran Filipino-American War general and an ardent supporter of Quezon, that during his incum-bency, the bank lost much money on graft and corruption, on bad loans and on uncontrolled expenditures and unexplained disbursements. The result was the decline in the Philippine economy and the refusal of foreign banks to accept the Philippine peso.
The report concluded that the Filipino leaders were not ready to be granted independence, which was in contrast to the ardent desires of Quezon and Osmeña to seek more autonomy, participation on government affairs and eventual independence of the country. Although the report was not specific as to who was responsible, it alluded that Quezon and Osmeña were to be blamed on the fiasco because they both lobbied to former Governor Harrison for the appointment of Concepcion as president of the bank.
As an immediate result to the finding, US President Harding sent an American Auditor to investigate the massive graft and corruption in the different government agencies. Many Filipino officials were fired, unceremo-niously removed from the positions or replaced, many of whom were the relatives and friends of the Filipino politicians supportive of Quezon and Osmeña.
However, the appointment of the American Auditor prevented the further decline of Philippine economy and restored the confidence of foreign banks and investors on the country. The Philippine peso recovered against the US dollar, while the government funds became sufficient. These moves, however, was criticized by Quezon and other Filipino officials as unconstitutional, repressive and undemocratic. The cooperative atmosphere of Harri-son’s regime between American and Filipino officials was shattered, it was replaced by uneasiness and non-coope-ration among them. Government service became factional, the people suffered. The rift reached its peak when Pre-sident Harding appointed Leonard Wood as governor-general prompting Quezon to brand him a “tyrant” and “usurper of power/”

Quezon, as usual, with his Spanish pride, had the bravado of calling an American who was doing good as far as managing the affairs of the government, as a ‘tyrant’ just because he was hurting Quezon’s many Filipino political supporters who were incompetent, unqualified and corrupt. Wood’s examination and review of the expenditures of several government agencies exposed many unusual malversation of funds, cash advances and unexplained disbursements which were suspected of landing in the pockets of the Filipino politicos.
What I could not understand was Quezon’s equation of nationalism by endorsing unscrupulous supporters to juicy positions in the pretext of Filipino participation in running the affairs of the country. He told that Filipinos deserved more freedom in running their government, but when the same Filipino officials were appointed, it was like getting the key to unlock the unlimited funds which they siphoned for their personal interest.
The Filipinos politicians have not changed. As it was during the Spanish and American regimes, so it is at the present time. Our politicians would rather make ‘the government a hell and a pit of vipers with no com-punction of cheating their constituents’ than ‘establishing a vanguard of government excellence and progressive policies beneficial to the Filipino masses.’ Positions in government is treated as a license to amass wealth and perpetuation of power. I wonder why Quezon wanted a hellish government. Is it because he wanted it that way so he and his ilk can stay in power?
Everytime I hear politicians speak of “nationalism” when dealing with foreign powers, I know what they mean. Its just like saying “don’t interfere with us, were busy stealing money and we don’t want to stop.”

Olive

I will be short and sweet…sometimes, we have to be VERY careful what we wish for. Our country has been and is still being governed like HELL! Pnoy is trying hard but not much can be corrected in six years when generations of political abuse and rape have transpired. 2016 elections is pretty scary! God help this nation of “bobo”-teros, illiterate voters.

CrashLTD

Point #3 isn’t a PNoy Failure. It’s a failure caused by policy dating back to former administrations. The way budget and policy heavily favors Metro Manila has caused extreme congestion. If policies and budgets by previous administrations had seen this flaw, those problems wouldn’t have been PNoy’s to inherit.

Speaking about stolen money, why wasn’t Marcos’ illegally obtained wealth tackled in this article? If you wanna make comparisons then make sure to cover all your bases. Marcos’ stolen billions has placed several generations citizens (including this one and probably the next) in a position where they effectively pay 12% to 41% in taxes. Imagine almost a 100 million people suffering the penalties caused by a thieving president.

Before you create click-bait articles that heavily favor your point of view, stop and think if you are giving all the correct information. It’s a bit ironic that you title yourself GetRealPhilippines and claim to make the Filipino people face the truth but are guilty of not presenting all the facts.

BTW, I’m not a PNoy apologist. I’m just a Filipino who knows and likes to use his ‘kokote’.

So it’s all about the “previous administration’s”, right? Proves you missed the point of the piece — that an administration that promised a lot not only miserably failed to deliver but, itself, carried on the the criminal tradition of those “previous” ones you cited.

You can also see the true damage done by the emo thinking that followed the Martial Law years in the way the post-Marcos era is marked by idiotic emotionalism rather than mature reasoning applied to the critical task of selecting leaders and representatives to government. You see the results now. An irrevocably damaged collective psyche at a national level that routinely tolerates mediocre sacrifice platforms instead of visionary ones.

Dick S. O'Rosary

johnny

One suggestion I have for your site to truly help the country:
Set up a link or area where all members can contribute to a “reporting” style form of outing corruption.
For instance, anyone who lives in Cebu can upload picture of their mayors mansion, expensive cars, mistresses, scam projects, lies, crumbling infrastructure/ roads/ bridges, and report the latest scandals. It could be a “tip-line” of sorts. Hell, take pictures of the people walking around buying votes. Take pictures of the corrupt judges and the expensive lifestyle they live cheating people out of justice.
It can put the spotlight on the local corruption to get others to notice. Maybe if enough noise is made, someone with power will notice or maybe you can put shame on them.
Just an idea.

randy cadman

Ed

Our leaders lack the maturity to run our government. They are behaving like little children trying to get their own candies, fending themselves for their maligned names, hitting one another, feeling insecure of their positions, protecting their own asses, and a lot more of those childhood behavior. The maturity lever of our leaders, the countrymen included has eroded and decreased tremendously that we could no longer feel somebody is at the top. One day, we will have infants in the senate or congress. Well it is at least a relief that an old man full of wisdom is taking over and whipping children here and there out of their officer. At least, there is hope.

GM

Good morning. Great entertaining read, if some comments are a little worrying at times. I wonder if there’s any interest and maybe a little good that might come from a subject discussing why our ‘leaders’ have so badly treated what was once our pride and joy, our key source of income – tourism. Clearly declaring partial martial law and the rampant and almost bragged about corruption does nothing to encourage tourism, but even so we’ve neglected what we were once so proud of. As one example, Boracay was a World renowned hot tourist spot, with a recognized fantastic beach, but in literally 5 years it’s turned into a dirty, overpriced and unpleasant hole. Sewage, litter, bad dangerous roads, rude arrogant business owners and workers, dirty from the multitude of ridiculously priced Chinese owned hotels going up without check. It’s clear those charged with it’s care only care for filling their own pockets with permit backhanders, etc, yet leaving the infrastructure in an abysmal mess. From something to be proud of to an embarrassment – just a thought…

Thanks for the suggested topics. We have a articles that delve in the underlying rot in Filipinos’ efforts to develop its tourism industry. One such is in our archive site with the following excerpt you might find interesting…

In short, there is nothing about the Philippines that is a product of the Filipino that can be considered to be attractive to tourists. All of what we hawk to prospective visitors are Mother Nature’s to offer and not by any stretch of the imagination something that Filipinos can claim to have been involved in bringing about. Far from it, as a matter of fact. Rather, the fact of Filipinos being inhabitants of the island group we had named after a Spanish King actually subtracts from the value of these islands…